Quebec has lost its last appeal against an interprovincial
trade panel’s decision on restrictions for sales of vegetable oil-based dairy
products in the province.
An appellate panel, convened under the Agreement on Internal
Trade (AIT), has upheld the original decision last spring in favour of Saskatchewan’s
challenge against Quebec’s former Food Products Act.
Saskatchewan says it has now “won all aspects” of its case
dairy blends, dairy analogues and dairy alternatives.
Saskatchewan said the ruling reiterates that barriers
against production and sale of vegetable oil-based products in Quebec are to be
removed, thus allowing producers and processors to “freely sell their products
in Quebec.”
Quebec depends heavily on the dairy industry and
Saskatchewan is Canada’s largest producer of canola which is crushed to yield
vegetable oil.
